Tax records for Ohio began as early as 1800. The archives section of the Ohio Historical Society has a collection of original Ohio tax lists from the state auditor’s office. It includes lists from the county’s organization to 1838, usually arranged by county and township. They are not indexed. Esther Weygandt Powell has included many of them in Early Ohio Tax Records (Akron, Ohio: the author, 1971), beginning about 1800. The book does not include all the tax lists at the archives, nor does it include tax lists for all counties. It does, however, provide an excellent source to document many early Ohio families. The reprint of this book (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1985) includes a surname index. County courthouses hold various tax records that have not been inventoried. They are in the office of the county auditor or the county records manager.

The FHL has microfilm copies of all known extant tax records (1800–38) for Ohio. AISI produced Index to Ohio Tax Lists, 1800–10 (Bountiful, Utah: AISI, 1977) and Gerald Petty has compiled Ohio 1825 Tax Duplicates (Columbus, Ohio: Petty’s Press, 1897). A similar volume by Petty for 1835 is also available.

The National Archives—Great Lakes Region retains numerous federal tax records for Ohio. These include assessment books (1867–73) and corporate and personal records for District 10–Toledo, and District 11–Columbus.